The Leak in Time
by DrKaiserchief
Summary: Having been away from the excitement of the TARDIS and the Doctor for a number of months, Clara is awoken by a creaking in her house. An unexpected appearance from the Doctor stops her in her tracks, and turns her life upside down once again. An adventure fic in the style of the show. No romance at the moment, although there may be some later on :3 Thanks for reading, DrKaiserchief
1. A New Beginning

**Hi everybody, DrKaiserchief here but you can just call be Kai, or Doctor, your choice but remember, I don't have a bow tie. Anyway I'm rambling, this is my first fic that I've released online, and I need all the advice that I can get! I will update this story as regularly as possible (if I get good reviews) but I'm not going to promise a specific schedule. Anyway, if you read through the first chapter and think that the story feels a bit disjointed and rubbish, don't worry, I thought that too, but I implore you to _at least_ read through the second chapter, which I personally think is much better than the first. I might even rewrite the first chapter at some point. I'm rambling again. Above all, please please please enjoy the story and thank you for reading. If you could leave a review then that would be amazing! **

**Oh 1 more thing, I'm English so I will be using UK English, so don't expect any 'zee's in 'organise' ;)**

Clara feels like she's met him a thousand times but knows that's absurd. She's met the Doctor once and only once, when the Wi-Fi was used to attack the people of the nation, sealing their minds within a database. She tells herself this every day, but still can't shrug off the feeling that she has known this mysterious, wonderful man for much, much longer.

As companions they've had their fair share of dangerous encounters, the ghost in the house that turned out to be a future time traveller trapped in a bubble universe, that disgusting red parasite that feasted on the body and mind of Mrs Gilliflower, and most recently the Cybermen, the only race more intent on upgrading their hardware than mankind themselves. They had seen the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. They had travelled to planets far and distant stars, traversing the fabric of time and space as though it were a path from one reality to another. She had seen so many wonderful things whilst travelling with this man, and it had all brought them to this point in time and space. Her house, 2013.

A loud creaking noise startled her, stealing her away from her thoughts. She had been laying in bed, remembering the times gone by. Her bed was comfy, her walls pure white and calming. Remembering the noise she quickly blew out the candle and turned on her light. Approaching the door, she reached out to grab the handle when there was a loud knocking on her window.

She gasped, eyes wide with terror as she turned to face the window. Her terror quickly changed to relief at then anger at the sight of the Doctor's face looking through the window.

"Hello" he said cautiously, knocking again for good measure, "can you let me in now? It's rather cold and the sonic screwdriver won't work on bolts."

"Are you gonna do this every time? Just turn up at my window and expect me to just leave and jump back into your snogging booth?" Clara retorted irritably, it was the first she'd heard from the Doctor since he'd dropped her and the kids off following the slight Cyberman incident. She couldn't stay angry at him for long though, his goofy face couldn't help but make her smile. "Ok hold on I'll…" She was interrupted by another, much louder creak. It was definitely coming from the bottom of the stairs. Clara turned to face the door, feeling all of the colour drain from her face out of terror. She began to step towards the door, when the Doctor shouted.

"Clara stop, I know I always tell you not to do things and you find it boring but if there's one thing that you definitely should not do, it's to open that door!"

"Err, why?" Clara responded. Right now the Doctor was scaring her more than the creaking. There it was again, the creak was louder this time. No, not louder. Closer. "Doctor, help!"

"Clara." He said ominously, "There's something at the bottom of your stairs." Her piercing eyes stared back at him, they were wide with fear. "Now let me in, I'm freezing and there's an adventure in there. You know I love an adventure. And how do you expect me to be clever when it's, so, cold?!" This made her smile.

The Doctor is back.

She dashed to the window, opening it deftly, the window was large, but it swung open to a small angle, so it took a few seconds for the Doctor to squeeze his frame through.

"Clara! Clara" he exclaimed happily, pulling her into an embrace. "Has anything happened? What have they done to you, what's going on?" The Doctor muttered, looking her over.

Clara pushed him away lightly, "Doctor I'm fine, nothing's happened!"

"Ah yes… sorry."

"You mentioned something about a thing on my stairs?" Clara inquired, "what's going on?"

"Yes yes, of course, the thing is that there's always been something at the bottom of your stairs. At the bottom of everyone's stairs rather. People always say that they feel like they're being watched when they're walking up the stairs. Well guess what?" He spun around, looking way too happy. "There's always something there. There's always something watching you. In the corner of your eye."

Every one of Clara's hairs felt like it was standing on end. She had goosebumps all over her arms and up her legs. Could it be true? Is there really something there? "Okay… So what is this thing at the bottom of the stairs?"

"Ahh, well! The thing is, I don't know."

Clara cocked an eyebrow, "You're gonna go look at it aren't you?"

"Yep"

And with that he twizzled round again, and headed for the door. "Wait, I'm coming with you Doctor!"

He turned and looked her in the eyes, staring into her soul. Those eyes, she felt weak at the knees looking into his eyes, but she ignored it, tearing her eyes away from his. "Whatever's down there it could be extremely dangerous and likely very hungry. I don't want it to think you're its food, like I'm giving it an apple tart or…" He racked his mind for another option, "or some fish-fingers and custard." He beamed at himself as Clara stared back at him like he was mad.

"You know what I'm not even gonna ask", she said, "I'm coming with you."

A worried look appeared on the Doctor's face, his brow furrowing. "I can't stop you?"

"Nope, my house, my rules. I'm the boss remember?"

"Yeh you're the boss, wait no no I'm the boss! I'm more than a thousand years old, I'm the boss!" His words fell on deaf ears, Clara just smiled cheekily, raising her eyebrows, and turned the handle.


	2. Something Old, Something New

**Editors note: Anything that is not contained within "quotation marks" but is in _italics_ is thought by one of the characters. Thanks for reading :)  
**

Swinging the door open, Clara tentatively walked out into the first floor hallway, with the Doctor in tow. She felt tense in the darkness, ready to dart back into her room if necessary. What would she find? Surely it had to be something so very dangerous if even the doctor didn't know what it was? To her right were two doors, one leading into her luxurious bathroom, complete with a whirlpool bath with candles littering its side. She had always been more of a bath person. The other door led to the spare bedroom, a welcoming room painted in a light blue, much lighter than the TARDIS.

To her left, in an indent in the wall, were the stairs. She didn't have fancy spiral staircases or anything; just your bog-standard UK carpeted stairs. They were new stairs as well, just recently installed. And they certainly never creaked. A wave of fear crashed over her again when she realised this; whatever was down those stairs purposely made them creak. It wanted her to look for it.

It was waiting for her.

She was frozen to the spot. "D…Doctor?" she said fearfully. She jumped as she felt something touch her shoulder, making a little squeak. "Oh it's only you!" _Thank God! _Clara suddenly found great relief that the Doctor was by her side. He had put his hand on her shoulder, and was now squeezing it lightly, letting her know he was there.

As quickly as she felt the touch it was gone, and she saw the Doctor move towards the stairs. "Doctor, I'm just a teeny bit terrified."

"So am I" he replied ominously. How can there be something that he didn't know of? And why was it waiting for someone to find it? It all just didn't make sense. 'If only I knew! Why don't I know?' the Doctor scolded himself silently. He wished he could just get out of there, and more importantly get Clara out of there, and to the relative safety of the TARDIS. He couldn't let any harm become of her again. He had let her die too many times. He wished that she would just leave it all to him. He couldn't really put into words how he felt about her, when he gripped her shoulder he felt a connection, like she had been with him for all his life, whispering in his ear or holding his hand. He didn't let his touch linger, he couldn't allow himself to get pre-occupied with his feelings, not now anyway.

"Ok Clara, around this corner there's something extremely dangerous so I'm just going to stick my head around the corner and wave my screwdriver at whatever it is. Hopefully whatever it is is scared of green lights."

Clara was taken aback by this. "And then what Doctor? Are we supposed to fight it?"

"Clara…" The Doctor sighed. "You know when I tell you that everything's going to be fine, and you think I'm probably lying just to make you feel better?"

"Yeh," she replied, cocking her head ever so slightly to the left, a confused look on her face.

He smiled, "Everything's gonna be fine." Turning around again towards the stairs he removed the sonic screwdriver from his inside pocket, straightened his bow tie and prepared for the worst. Another creak! Louder than ever. _Ooh this is a new feeling, what is this? Everything's standing on end. This must be, oh I don't know what is this?_ The Doctor tapped his head firmly. _Oh I know! I'm scared. So very scared. I don't really know what's going to happen now._ The Doctor's thoughts were racing. _Whatever's down these stairs it must be huge. To be able to make a creak that loud! _

_This should be fun._

The Doctor took a sharp breath. Time seemed to slow down, and he wasn't even in the TARDIS, he held the button on the sonic screwdriver, and turned round the corner to peek down the stairs. He quickly darted back round the corner away from the stairs. "What did you see Doctor?" Clara asked worriedly, "What was there?"

"Something very dangerous and evil and ohh you don't want to go down there… wait a second," the Doctor paused, thinking. _I saw something what did I see, what was it?_ He racked his brains trying to think. _What did I see? Something's missing here. _The stairs creaked again. _What's missing!? _Not a moment later it hit him like a tonne of bricks. He knew why it all felt so wrong. He knew what was missing.

_A monster._

"Impossible!" the Doctor remarked.

"What? What's wrong Doctor?" Clara asked, worried now.

"Everything. Everything is wrong. There's nothing there!" The Doctor looked around the corner once more, making sure that his eyes had not deceived him the first time. Whilst he was looking incredulously there was another loud creak, directly in front of him. Clara was by his side.

"Doctor, I don't like this…" She grabbed a hold of his jacket, searching for some comfort.

"Neither do I." The Doctor scanned the area with his sonic screwdriver, running up and down the stairs three times, four. He crouched down, examining one of the stairs, as if he could find an answer woven in the fibres of the carpet. _How can there be nothing here? _

"Aha!" The Doctor shouted jubilantly. He scanned the room again, quicker this time. He knew what he was doing.

"What is it Doctor, what do you know?" Clara knew that he was confident, and this calmed her more than anything. When the Doctor is confident, beasts beware.

He ran his finger along the wall, tasting it. "There're two sets of stairs in this house!"

"Doctor you're not making any sense, this is the only flight of stairs, what's going…ohh." She had taken another look at the stairs, seen exactly what the Doctor had noticed from the start. "But the stairs? I only got them fitted recently, how could they possibly look so…old?" The carpet on each stair had started to lose some of its fluff; like a well-loved teddy bear, the stairs were balding. "But Doctor what's happened? They look about a hundred years old?"

"Silly Clara, deaf Clara, don't you ever listen? There are _two_ sets of stairs here." The Doctor looked her in the eye, making every word count. Frustratingly, Clara's faced stayed blank.

"Nope, you've lost me."

The Doctor sighed. "Clara, there's been a lot of timey wimey stuff going on in this house, but not spacey wacey! No that would be ridiculous! Only timey wimey that's all." Clara still looked blank. _Unsurprisingly._ "In this exact spot, two things are happening at the exact same time, two time streams that should never have touched. And now they've come together, and part of that other reality is seeping through the vortex. That's why we see this old staircase, it's leaked through the fabric of time like the few drips of water that always leak from the tap after it's been turned off. That's why you can hear the creaks, they're happening in this precise place in a completely different time stream."

Clara had an incredulous look on her face. "Surely that's fine then, and we can just wait and the other time will stop leaking in by itself." She secretly hoped that this wasn't the end of the excitement. Life had been boring in the months since the Doctor had left her here. It was all ordinary, no monsters, no shooting, and not even any time travel. Although she would never tell him, she had missed him.

Her train of though was broken by the voice of the Doctor, "No of course not! There must have been something that opened the tap in the first place, and that is a level 4 breach of the united galaxies time travel convention."

"Time travel convention?" Clara was curious.

"Yes! Well, I'll tell you later." Clara pouted a little at this. "The important thing is that that creaking is coming from the time stream that's leaking through into your house, and I bet that the thing that's making that sound was the thing that opened that tap. We need to get back to the TARDIS, are you coming?"

The Doctor scanned the stairs and then ran for the front door. Turning around he said excitedly, in his typical goofy way, "hurry up then!"

And they ran. Being with this extraordinary alien made Clara forget everything. She knew she was in her nightdress, running through the winter night without any shoes on, but she didn't care. The Doctor was practically glowing with excitement and she could feel it too. Him coming back for her made her giddy with enthusiasm, and she couldn't quite put what she was feeling into words.

The TARDIS was in close now, the royal blue a welcome sight for Clara. A familiar tinge of happiness and excitement washed over her. _Finally! Another adventure in the TARDIS!_ The Doctor twisted the key in the lock and held the door open for Clara.

Walking inside, Clara once again felt astounded by the staggering size of the interior. It had been months since she had stepped foot inside that blue box, and whilst Clara wasn't stupid enough to think that her and the Doctor's experiences had all just been one big dream, she was starting to believe that her mind was just playing tricks on her. Obviously not.

"Doctor, what are we doing, you still haven't explained."

"Ah, well what I'm doing is being extremely clever and possibly quite foolish and what you're doing is watching me," the Doctor remarked smugly. "Using the sonic screwdriver I captured a snapshot of the old stairs in your house, and now by putting that information into the TARDIS I can extrapolate the exact time stream that has leaked into the house using that image. I know, I know I'm a genius."

"Yep, and I'm the boss" remarked Clara cheekily, kissing him on the cheek. He jumped a little in surprise, looking her in the eyes. _No, I'm getting distracted by her again… her eyes are beautiful._ A few beeps from the TARDIS took his attention away from Clara.

"She's ready, where are we going? Come on sexy, tell me where we're going." He swivelled the monitor to face himself and Clara.

"The 15th April 2072 eh? Thank God I was getting tired of the Victorian principles. I never want to see another toxic red leech again." Clara said happily.

The Doctor flicked some switches and twizzled the stabiliser orb. "Are you ready?" He asked. Clara nodded.

He pulled the lever and grabbed on tight. "Geronimo!"


	3. The Light in the Dark

On the 15th April, 2072, in Yorkshire, the TARDIS wheezed into existence, materialising on the pathway. The Doctor, still inside, shut down the time manipulator, put on his jacket, straightened his bow tie, and headed for the door. He was wearing a bright shirt with thin stripes of red, a dark red bow tie, and of course his favourite brown jacket. He opened the TARDIS door and stepped outside, only to dart back inside having realised it was raining hard. His hair was dripping all over the floor, making Clara giggle. "We're going to need an umbrella," he remarked.

Within 5 minutes, the pair exited the box in tandem; Clara's arm was wrapped around the Doctor's waist to try stay under the cover of the umbrella. "That's the one, Doctor", Clara said, pointing at a house. "It hasn't changed a bit!" Despite 60 years having passed, the neighbourhood had not changed much; the streetlamps were much brighter, lit by a chain reaction; nuclear fusion in a jar. The cars had no wheels, and no exhaust pipe. Humanity had discovered an easy to contain, clean source of energy 20 years ago, and so exhaust pipes were made redundant.

All of a sudden, the cloud started to give way to the sun, and the rain slowed around them. Humans had not found the energy source quick enough, and climate change had taken its toll, it was now possible to experience 4 seasons in a day.

"Thank God for that!" Clara exclaimed removing her arm from the Doctor's waist and stepping out into the sun, "I was freezing!"

"Clara get back under the umbrella now!" The Doctor said sternly, with a worried look on his face_. _The Doctor noticed the confused look on her face. "Look at your arm Clara," she looked down and gasped as she realised that her forearm had started to turn pink. "We're almost 60 years in the future, there's no more ozone layer because humans have leeched off of every power source available; Earth is no longer protected from the sun. If you go out in the sunlight, you'll be burnt in seconds. Within a minute, you'll be cooked." The Doctor winced, as if just saying that was hurting him.

"Ouch… So we'll be fine as long as we stay in the shade then?" she asked nervously.

"Yes, but don't worry, we've got an old house to investigate which almost certainly has an evil and probably very hungry creature in it, so it'll be easy to stay out of the light." He rubbed his hands together joyously, "ooh I love a haunted house!"

"Oh, evil, hungry monster… wonderful." Clara said nervously, "Why did I ever leave?"

The doctor ignored this, opened the barred iron gate leading to the front garden of Clara's old house, and knocked three times on the door. "Hello in there!" He called out, waiting for a response. There was none.

The doctor knocked again, sharing a quick glance with Clara. "Can you let us in please, it's terribly hot out here?" Still there was no response from inside. The Doctor removed his sonic screwdriver and unlocked the door, pleased this time that the door wasn't deadlocked.

He was worried. _What can be so secretive that I don't know it exists? What is in this house? I can't let Clara get hurt; I've let that happen far too often. She should have stayed in the TARDIS! _He pushed the door open, sonic screwdriver at the ready. Through the door there was a hallway, with the staircase to the right. It was too dark in that house, it was as if no light was able to pass through the doorway, like there was an invisible force field preventing anything from entering.

Or leaving.

"Clara, stop." He raised his hand to emphasise his point. Using his screwdriver, he scanned the doorway, flicked the device up and checked the reading. "Yes just as I thought! Aha well done Doctor!" He praised his own actions.

"What? What have you found?" Clara again was confused.

"It's a force field Clara, can't you see how dark it is in there? Whatever's in this house it has been there long enough to set up an invisible barrier. Nothing gets in or out of this place without the right technology," he held up the sonic screwdriver to Clara's face, "and do you know what this is?" He was beaming, a goofy smile plastered across his face which told Clara he had a plan.

She smiled, "the right technology." _He's so full of himself! But it's kind of sexy… Stop it Clara! There's a hungry evil creature in there and you're thinking about the doctor._

The Doctor pointed his screwdriver at the door, seeming to tune it to the right frequency, and then simply stepped inside. "Put the umbrella down before you come it, otherwise it's seven years bad luck." The Doctor noted.

Clara chuckled, "You're worrying about that _now_ when there's a nasty monster in here, probably about to eat us or at the very least kill us?" She stepped in the house, folding the umbrella away in the hallway to make her point.

The Doctor walked up to her, seeming to tower over the impossible girl, and looked her in the eyes. "Okay, don't say that I didn't warn you." He sounded ominous. _Surely that's a superstition, _Clara thought, _an old wives tale?_ "Right, hungry monster time," he announced, "come and get me!" He shouted so that his voice echoed around the household, and spread out his arms.

"Err, Doctor, what are you doing?"

"Hush Clara I'm trying to see if there's anything that wants to eat us, I'd much rather die by the door so at least it looks like we tried to escape!" He answered in a hushed voice.

There was no response, no sound of footsteps. There was nothing at all.

The Doctor shrugged and walked further down the hallway, checking up the staircase and seeing nothing. But then, in the corner of his eye, he noticed a faint light coming from the living room. "Clara, stay close." She was happy to oblige. Walking cautiously into the living room, he soon found the source of the light. The TV was on. _How can the TV be on that's impossible? The force field would have blocked any power from getting into this house._ The Doctor felt a strong sense of foreboding, and as he focused his eyes on the screen, he saw why the house had to be so dark. He thought of Clara, kicking himself for bringing her into this situation. "Clara turn around, keep your eyes open. Don't even blink. You have to look exactly where I'm not, that way together, we can see everything."

On the screen was the image of a weeping angel, only this one wasn't crying.

It was laughing.


	4. The Image of an Angel

**Chapter 4, and I hope that you all enjoy! Reviews are always welcome, good or bad, and kind words are appreciated. ~DrKaiserchief**

"What is it Doctor? What's there?" Clara was scared now, one arm grabbing on to the Doctor's jacket behind her back, making sure he couldn't leave her behind. Her eyes were watering. _It's dark in here anyway; surely it can't hurt if I blink? No, the Doctor told me not to, so I can't. I mustn't blink!_

The Doctor moved closer to the TV, making sure to check his corners. "The angels are here." _Why are they here? And why is the angel smiling?_ His mind rushed through all of the possibilities, trying desperately to work it out, but he was distracted. Clara was on his mind. _Why did I bring Clara? Why did this all happen in her house? Think!_

Meanwhile, Clara relaxed a little at the Doctor's words, "well surely we're fine then. Angels aren't exactly known for killing?"

"No Clara you don't understand, these are weeping angels, when they're being observed they're quantum locked, they can't move," the Doctor explained. "But when you look away, they move faster than light. They take you."

Clara could feel a lump growing in her throat; she suddenly wanted nothing to do with this. She just wanted to leave. "Where do they take you?"

The Doctor ignored her, scanning the TV with his sonic screwdriver. _What do they want? What do they know? I've already lost Amy and Rory to the angels; I will not let that happen to Clara… Clara. _It all made sense now; like a thousand alarm bells ringing in his head at once. _They want her._

"Doctor! Where do they take you?" Clara was frustrated now.

The Doctor snapped a bit, "To past… the future, anywhere they like." Thoughts of Amy and Rory welled up in his mind. _I lost them. It was my fault._ Clara could see that she'd struck a sore spot, and moved over to comfort him, turning her back on the doorway.

In the corner of her eye, she noticed something change. The image on the TV had changed, and the angel was starting to materialise in front of the screen, bursting into reality.

"D… Doctor, Doctor the angel in the TV, it's coming out! How can it be doing that?" Clara struggled to avoid showing how scared she was.

"Clara don't look at its eyes, and whatever you do don't blink!" The Doctor held his sonic screwdriver up to the lights and pressed the button. The room was bathed in a warm, yellow glow, and it was only then that the Doctor and Clara could see how desperate the situation really was. In the room were 3 leather armchairs, and seated in all three were stone people.

"But they don't look like the one in the screen Doctor, are they angels?" Clara asked.

Scanning one of the gargoyles, the Doctor responded, "no, they're not angels. But this angel has been in the screen for a very, very long time. Long enough to have destroyed these people from the inside." _It's been waiting. _There was a creak on the stairs; the lights flashed off and on again. The angel that was in the TV was now standing in front of Clara.

A wave of heat washed over Clara, and she collapsed clutching her chest. She let out a little cry of pain. "Doctor… what's happening to me?" She gasped.

_I've got to get her out of here._ "It's the time leak! No time to explain, we have to leave, now!" He bent down; eyes still fixed on the angel, and picked up Clara, bridal style. "Clara listen very carefully, we're going to get back to the TARDIS; this was all a trap. You have to keep looking at the angel behind me when I turn around, do not look away, and do not blink!" He turned, making his way to the door, using his sonic screwdriver to light up the rooms around him.

Clara's thoughts were cloudy, and she was struggling to keep her eyes open. She buried her face into the Doctor's shoulder, keeping one eye on the angel behind. How she had longed for this kind of contact with him, and now that she felt as though she were dying she couldn't enjoy it. The lights flashed again, and the angel was closer this time. Much closer, baring its teeth. _Concentrate Clara; stay awake. Concentrate!_

The Doctor had reached the hall now, and angels lined the stairs, reaching over the guardrail to try catch the biggest prize of them all. He was running now, and he reached the front door in seconds. Deactivating the force field, he stepped out into the daylight. Thankfully, the rain had returned, leaving them in no danger of being cooked in the sun. But there was still a very real danger around. The entire area was deserted, and looking back at the house, the angels had reached the doorway. One appeared to be clawing at the first floor window. The TARDIS was sat adjacent to a fountain, a fountain that had statues on it when the companions first arrived. They had moved.

Breaking a sweat, the Doctor ran over to the blue box, Clara in his arms. Her breathing was laboured, and the Doctor knew that every second counted. He almost broke down the door when entering the TARDIS, taking care to close the door behind him. He could hear the angels slamming on the door. BANG! BANG! BANG! Always three times in a row.

Clara gasped and spluttered, realising that at some point she must have closed her eyes. She could barely remember the last five minutes. "Doctor, what happened to me?" She wheezed. The Doctor laid her down carefully on the TARDIS stairs, and toyed with the console. The banging stopped as the TARDIS groaned into life once more, transporting them to the other side of the world in a heartbeat. "Doctor, please tell me what's going on?" The mist that clouded her mind in the house was beginning to lift. "Did the angels do something to me?" Her limbs felt paralysed with fear.

The Doctor turned slowly towards her, silently deciding what to say to her. He decided that the truth was a good place to start. After all the time they had spent together, and all the times that she had helped him, he owed this to his impossible girl. "Clara, Clara… Poor Clara. Don't you understand? This was your house, and it still is. This is your life, your future. You've just crossed your time stream in the biggest possible way and Clara, impossible Clara, I am so, so sorry." He looked her dead in the eyes. He could almost feel the fear in her gaze. He sat down next to her on the stairs of the TARDIS and held her close. _They want her._ "The 15th April 2072, it's not that far ahead of your time. This is it Clara."

"This is the day you die."


End file.
